Neuberger Berman PE

Hi All,

I am about to start my second year as an analyst at a BB in London and have been thinking about different career options for the future. 

I have come across Neuberger Berman’s PE team in London. As I am not very familiar with them beyond what the team generally does (primaries, secondaries, and co-investments), I would appreciate if anyone could shed some light on the main differences to traditional PE roles. I understand that in their primaries and secondaries business, NB will allocate capital to PE funds that will do the actual investing, and they will invest themselves for co-investments alongside a GP.

Especially any info about culture, comp (progression), and actual work one will do would be greatly appreciated! They make it seem like a very deal-heavy role though I find it difficult to reconcile with their primaries and secondaries business.

Thanks a lot in advance!

17 Comments
 

Is it fair to dissect secondary players with the following view:

Group 1 (pureplay secondary firms): Neuberger Berman, HarbourVest, StepStone, Hamilton Lanes of the world

Group 2 (Direct PE players with secondary funds): Blackstone, Landmark (Ares), AlpInvest (Carlyle) of the world

1. If that is the right way to look at things, what are the primary differences of working in Group 1 versus Group 2 at the VP/Principal/MD level?

2. What are the advantages / disadvantages of secondary investing from these types of organizations (e.g. Group 2 probably has better information from direct PE funds, but also conflict of interest with internal direct funds)?

3. Who will win in the long run (or maybe everyone carves out their own niche in the market?)?

4. What does compensation, culture and lifestyle look like?

I'm not necessarily focused on specific firms (although if you have views there that would be additive to the discussion too), but I'm trying to understand the similaries/dissimilarities between Group 1 and Group 2. I could also be off base on bifurcating between the two when thinking about this market 

 

I am not 100% sure what you mean by “pureplay”: Direct Co-Investments, which some of those players do, do not count as Secondaries. 

There are smaller firms that only do Secondaries (Coller Capital, Pomona Capital, to name two); there are some that only do Primaries (often family offices). It’s a very big landscape so I’d suggest you spend time understanding the strategies alone. Many of the names I listed have case studies and white papers on their websites, which you can access for free. 
Hope this helps!

 

One of the fastest growing firms in the space. Very well regarded in the PE world. They can write significant tickets in co-investments (think $300-400-500mm on a single deal). You should understand how much work you will be expected to do in primaries vs. co-invest vs. secondaries.

WLB better than banking and comp in the long term will be multiples of banking due to carry. I believe they have had little churn as it is a pretty cushy job that pays well and culture is quite good.

 
Most Helpful

It is true that you are leveraging the work of the GP heavily, however I would not go so far as saying that people in co-invest shops copy paste GP work and that's it.

The amount of deal flow some of the top shops like NB see is probably in the magnitude of 500+ deals a year. You can probably look up the stats for Hamilton Lane as they are listed.

Tell me a fund that sees 500 actionable deals per year with proper phase 2 due diligence done.

The point of co-invest is picking which deal you want to do with which GP. Also in case of co-underwriting if the GP you were working with lost out on the deal, you can still get exposure to the asset through the syndication process with the GP who won.

Because of the amount of deal flow that comes through the door you will inevitably close deals and work on more transactions than in a direct GP. You will never understand the asset in a particular deal as good as the associate at the lead sponsor who built the model and spent 6 months working on the due diligence but you would be able to comfortably speak about the merits of the investment, the main risks etc.

 

Any idea what exits would be possible from the place? Say for PE or lateral to IB ?

 

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